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Elements and components

Nine elements fall out of rock and five components never do; which rock gives what, and why selling them is the mistake you are allowed to make.

An element is what falls out of a rock that is not the rock. A component is manufactured: wrecks drop them, a shelf sells the plain ones, and no rock ever gives one up. Together they are the fourteen materials a bill at the bench is made of.

Elements sell for little on purpose. A workshop wants them; a counter does not. A pilot who sells their elements is selling their next tier for pocket change.

The elements

Four kinds of rock - Iron, Silicon, Ice, Platinum - and each element comes out of some of them only.

Element	Rarity	Out of	Assay note
`ferrite_dust` Fd	common	Iron, Silicon	every hold’s sweepings; sold at the Mining post
`silica_gel` Sg	common	Silicon, Ice	a workshop’s filler; sold at the Mining post
`cryo_salt` Cy	uncommon	Ice only	why a miner learns which rocks are blue
`tantalum` Ta	uncommon	Iron, Platinum	takes heat; in every hull weld
`iridium` Ir	rare	Platinum, Iron	the first find a workshop takes seriously
`void_glass` Vg	rare	Silicon, Ice	silica fused in the Cinder; lens-grinders want it
`starmetal` St	exotic	Iron, Platinum	alloyed in a world’s death; no forge pours it
`null_shard` Nx	exotic	Silicon, Platinum	scanners log a hole; coil-winders want it
`belt_heart` Bh	singular	any rock	a piece of the old world’s core

Whether a rock drops anything depends on its size; what it drops depends on the ore and on luck, never on size. Ice has no exotic.

A belt heart is the core of the world that was, scattered when the crust became the belt - so it can come out of any rock. No shelf sells one, no bench pours one, and it is spent only on things that end: a name on an item, never something that comes back.

The components

Component	Rarity	Where from
`servo_array`	uncommon	wrecks, or plain off the Mining post shelf
`focusing_lens`	rare	wrecks
`field_coil`	rare	wrecks
`singularity_core`	exotic	wrecks
`assay_seal`	rare	the Arms wing shelf, stocked by convoy lanes; never a wreck

The rare half of any bill is never on a shelf at any price. That keeps deep rock and deep lanes worth flying for, and makes the seal something a miner trades a fighter for. Mining and selling.